Playa Cabana Hacienda

Playa Cabana Hacienda is now open just down the street from original (and perpetually packed) Dupont location. The new spot from chef/owner Dave Sidhu takes over from the converted two storey Victorian that was until recently Vittorio's.

The interior has been stripped down to the original brick and selectively panelled with distressed woods. Oversized vintage road signs light the room with coloured bulbs and neon lettering, casting a pink, blue or yellow glow across the room depending on where you sit. Upstairs there's at least twice the seating with a front patio overlooking Dupont and plans for a future back patio that will add an additional 80 seats, though it might not be ready this season.

The menu at this location differs slightly from the other two locations (the second being the Junction's Cantina). Here there are no big plates of rice and beans but rather a snack bar menu featuring bocaditos (snacks). tacos, tostadas and sweets.

Most of the tacos come in under $6 each. I try the chorizo pulpo ($6) loaded with octopus and Mexican chorizo filling doused in spicy poblano salsa and a sprinkle of queso fresco and baby greens. It's an individual sized serving of Spanish tapas composed onto a tortilla.

The Lobster Tostada ($9) layered with a guacamole and lobster roe base, picked lobster meat and a fried claw on top is excellent as expected and tastes of the buttery crustacean throughout.

The Short Rib de Queretaro tostada ($8) is subtly nutty thanks to the yellow almond mole and topped with fresh radish, cilantro and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. The single piece of meat and crisp base are not easy to eat gracefully but after a few margaritas it hardly matters.

I don't try any of the sweets but make I through a couple cocktails like Dave's Margarita ($9) shaken with Tromba Blanco, Cointreau and lime... unsweetened. The bar is fully stocked with 50+ tequilas, Mexican beers, sodas and fresh squeezed fruit juice.

The kitchen aims, amongst other things, to cater to the midtown industry crowd and will stay open until 2am regularly. The second floor and upstairs patio will take reservations and eventually the snack bar will open for lunch.

Notwithstanding that Dupont and Avenue is in Canada and not California, or that trade-marks only apply to the sale of specific goods and services which are distinguishable from goods or services provided by others and not generally, or that the trade-mark of a design is restricted to the design itself and not the words contained within it, I'm pretty sure it's not trade-marked by the State of California http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&amp;state=4810%3Ai08o94.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=pch&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Queryor in Canada for any purpose which would make this sign problematichttp://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/bldSrch.do;jsessionid=0001pw6iAodBuZI6r5VmO1pqTSA:-13G1PO1?lang=eng&textField1=pch&selectField1=tm&submitButton=Search&andOr1=and&textField2=&selectField2=tmlookup_ext&andOr2=and&textField3=&selectField3=tmlookup_ext&andOr3=and&textField4=&selectField4=tmlookup_ext&andOr4=and&textField5=&selectField5=tmlookup_ext&selectWithin=&selectStatus=&checkboxTMType=&selectDateStatus=&fromDate=1865-01-01&toDate=2013-07-16&selectMaxDoc=500&selectDocsPerPage=10

FYI....TTC is only a short walk
If you are in the real estate biz, there is a common 3 word phrase...."location. location, location" Yes parking is an issue for some, but this place is only a short stroll, from subways and Yorkville, where prices are higher and parking even more scarce, other than P parking lots. I wish I owned this location.
perfect end corner with a park next to it, and sure..park your bike in front. My guess, is this will be the hottest place
in T.O for a long time.

It's also half a block up Dupont from the perpetually full original restaurant. If so many people are willing to make the trek to that location, surely there'll be a lot of spill-over customers for the new place, even if the menus aren't the same.

You deliever something good and it wont matter if its in the Arctic Circle...people will come.... How does one explain restaurants like Hasai and others that are 2 hrs from Toronto but are packed with reservations from Torontonians that are made weeks in advance. Like the old adage goes: "Build it and they will come"...lets just hope they can execute the model in multiple locations. It gets harder and harder. Terronis would be an amazing example of success with the multiple location model.

I went recelty in Playa Hacienda. Food is amusing specially Jerk lobster,Tres leche Cake, Guaca fresca. Nice and enjoyable atmosphere around the Playa. But House of the front team and service is so so. They doesn't concern for costumer only having drinks in the bar for themself.Company have to think about that.

I will be there again and again for Fantastic Tacos with my families and friends.......................

I had the opportunity to dine at Playa Hacienda last week and unfortunately it was a really awful experience.

I am a huge fan of Playa Cabana and was so excited to try this location. We had a reservation for 9:30 and arrived at 9am. We sat at the bar and ordered a pitcher of Margaritas. By 9:40 we had not been seated, and had to ask the Matradee repeatedly on the status of our table. Eventually we got the table closest to the door when you enter, which seemed to us to be a table that is typically prioritized for walk ins. Without droning on - we only had one visit from our waitress, the meals came out 20 minutes apart which is difficult when you're dining with 4 people, and they were cold. I ordered the Poblano stuffed peppers and the came out like fried pucks. My friend ordered enchiladas with mole and lobster, it came out cold and they brought her tacos instead. The waitress ignored us, the manager stepped in and spent 20 minutes with us and then left for the evening. Overall the experience was disappointing, took over 2 and half hours and ruined our evening.

I hope this was a one-off case but wanted to provide this as a caution to my fellow BlogTo foodies!

Service was RUDE, manager "Cal" called my friend a bitch, accused of arriving 30 mins late for our reservation, WRONG! We were 5 mins early and left us sitting to order for 30.

Bus boy sarcastic and lazy, forgot one of our meals, tried to give us a second portion of something we already received. Been there a bunch of times, service is always lacking but this visit took the CAKE!

A friend and I went there yesterday.Very cool vibe. Somewhat cramped but really not an issue. We ordered the chips and guac as a starter. Excellent. I had fish tacos which the name now escapes me. They were delicious. One gripe I had was that they were served on a small (loonie sized) soft shell which made them pretty much impossible to eat properly. They were way too small to wrap around the contents. But I managed to get it all down with the help of a knife and fork. My friend had the pollo tinga (chicken tacos), which, while slightly but understandably messy, were far more susceptible to being eaten with nothing more than a pair of hands. She found them to be a little too spicy at times due to some pieces of jalapeno, but she still found them quite enjoyable. The staff was great. Always checking in on us and topping off our water. Would go back a second time for sure.